Fanatic

Do you remember that show on MTV “Fanatic,” where people would go crazy and hyperventilate over meeting their favorite band? I always thought these crazy loons don’t have a life. Well, I married one of those loons and every other day I get to hear how awesome it would be to see Aerosmith and meet Steven Tyler.

Do you agree that it’s ridiculous that every major life event of ours needs to be planned around Aerosmith tour dates? While Matt was working in California he purchased tickets to his first Aerosmith concert, and to his dismay Steven Tyler fell off the stage and cancelled the tour. So, Matt thought it would be a great idea to spend our honeymoon at an Aerosmith concert. A couple days beforehand the concert was cancelled yet again and we had to spend our honeymoon lodged up in Vegas! I was not the happiest of happy brides.

While standing in the line at a dominos Matt gets inspired to pick up one of the magazines lying on the bench, and on the front cover is this advertisement (above). I knew I hated dominos for a reason. Matt 

looked at me and said “I will not bring it up all weekend, just think about it.” 

So Monday morning at 10 am comes and Matt immediately gets on the line to order our tickets. I couldn’t say no to the poor guy. As long as he doesn’t start crying I can bare a couple hours of stinky rockers and Matt screaming along to every song. 

Home Sweet Home?

One of my most annoying qualities is that when I set my mind up to do something, I obsess. There have been a few fast fading fads that I obsess over for about a month and then push them off to the side like a needy high school boyfriend. For example:

Insanity: Bought the full work out tapes and was pretty hardcore consistent for about a week and a half but could never quite get the hang of torturing myself every morning before school/work. I have sworn over and over I would restart but, hello I have new fads to worry about.

·     Refurbishing furniture: Had a minor addiction to bargain shopping at thrift stores and garage sales with the idea that my apartment would be super trendy and shabby chic. Well,  let me just tell you, if a crap load of other people’s unwanted junk is chic, then I have got the concept mastered.

·     Homemade cards: I have been faithfully attending a card club with Cedar Park’s finest and convinced myself I had what it takes to take it to the next level. I am still in the mist of this fad, but have already watched the steady decline as my tools stack up and the time spend between card making increases.

Which brings me to my most expensive recent fad, house hunting. As I watch our budget shrink with the rising costs of living at the domain, I think, why we are wasting so much money on rent? I think this is probably the exact same excuse everyone uses to convince themselves they are ready for a bigger commitment. The scary part is I haven’t committed to an apartment for a full year since college and there are so many factors to consider.

Maybe you more experienced/rational friends or family can give a girl a hand. What is important…location, space, and price? What is better… existing, or new construction? The big problem we are running into is that our dream location does not have a lot to offer in our price range and I would immediately want to tear every old rusty piece of the home apart and redo it to my liking, you know other people's chic junk!

All these decisions make me break out and wonder how anyone purchases their first home without making major compromises. I am hoping if I pray long and hard enough the perfect house with the perfect price in the perfect location will just pop up. Your laughing at me, aren’t you? I am also hoping like most of the other fads, this obsession poofs, disappears and I will be perfectly satisfied with renting for the years to come.

Fashionably Late?

Matt and I live in the Domain in Austin, which is a retail mall with housing above the shops. Each month they host a couple parties for the residents to network and meet neighbors. This month they had an end of summer bash to include a photo booth, professional poker dealers, giveaways, and lots of food!  Most of my experience with poker comes from being forced to watch World of Poker Tour with my dad, so obviously I am a tough competitor.

All week I have been dreaming of the grand prize and the announcement that Cassie was indeed the chip leader. (See the lingo!) Matt on the other hand would rather stay in and watch the Olympics for the 10^th night in a row.  As soon as I got home, I showered and put on my best poker/pool party get up I could find with poker face sunglasses in tow. Ready to go promptly at 6:00 pm when the party started, I told Matt, “Come on so I can win this thing!” Which he replied, “Cassie, no one gets there right at six. It’s a party not an interview. And, why are you wearing cowboy boots to the pool? Take those off!” So…. he was right about the cowboy boots. However, is it true? Is being on time taboo?

For the most part I am a stickler about being on time. Whether it is a dinner party, pool party, or a girl’s night, if someone gives an arrival time, I assume that is the time they want people to come. Which brings me to my next question, if being on time is early, what is on time? Five minutes late? 10 Minutes? 15 minutes late? All the stress that comes with determining what is “fashionably late” gives me anxiety! Needless to say, we were fashionably late at 6:05. Baby steps! “Compulsiveness is underrated!”

Poker Results:

Matt took ALL of my chips, and wouldn’t give them back. THE NERVE! I thought when you get married you were a team! The table thought I was being charming when I said “Matt, don’t you understand, even when you WIN you LOSE!” I was totally serious, and had to count to 10 before getting super upset that my own husband beat me when I was ALL IN. Rude! 

Ask and ye shall receive

I have pondered over and over throughout the weekend on whether or not I should share a particular experience I had last week. Sharing spiritual thoughts is not my forte and I would much rather crack sarcastic jokes. However, there is vulnerability with sharing difficult personal experiences and blocking that would be disingenuous. But… don’t get used to it!

Being Mormon there is a lot of pressure from all angles. Since the Latter Day Saint community is a small one, everyone knows everything about you and if they don’t, they will. For me the pressure was minimal and I strived to be acutely obedient.For others the pressure is consuming and annoying which I have learned to be more sensitive to. The most rebellious thing I’ve done was get a nose piercing while working at Red Bull on a lunch break and then immediately take it out once I realized church was the next day. My mom found out about it 4 years after the fact. Oh and the occasional freshman year picture of middle fingers which now I find absoltely repulsive and trashy.

Being aware of your flaws is the first step to becoming a better person. One thing I have been steadily working on is becoming less controlling. I have this devilish quality to want to take away everyone’s free agency. Whether it is my husband, parents, baby brother, or myself, I love to have full control. This desire to be perfect and control everything has allowed me to excel in the business arena, and plummet in the personal one. As my brother gets older, I wish I could take him, put him in my pocket and make every decision for him. Because that isn’t a reality I get extremely anxious over the choices he makes.

Last week at work, I was experiencing anger mixed in with anxiety. Which I determined in actuality was fear and love. It is hard to work with customers all day when you mind is feasting on other thoughts. On my break I turned to the scriptures (well I don’t know if you turn scriptures on a smart phone but I digress) and happened upon the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. In this parable there are two siblings that may as well be my brother and I. As I read the passage I was overcome with love and comfort, finding faults in my own actions. I am so thankful for the scriptures and the gift of personal revelation. I am becoming more thankful for our free agency and the blessing to choose.

My biggest fear is to be an overbearing controlling mother and wife, which I am well on my way to becoming. I hope through my journeying the scriptures I will learn to let go and love.

Mommy & ME

For the past 9 month I have been living in Jealousy as one of my closest friends has been pregnant with her first child, a girl even! I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new baby, and scheming to figure out how I can discreetly kidnap her. Matt and I aren’t super serious about having kids yet since we are still young. However, there is something so special and magical about bringing a child into the world.

The night before last I got a call in the middle of watching The Real Housewives of O.C Reunion part 2. Typically I wouldn't even answer the phone and disrupt the brilliance transpiring on the television, but this call was from my cute pregnant friend. With sweaty hands I answer the phone and wait to hear that WE are having a baby. Even better…. Her water broke at work up north where we live and where the hospital is, and they live far away in the hills of Westlake. So, they asked if they could hang out with us for a couple hours before checking into the hospital. In the movies when a woman goes into labor it is almost animalistic with the yelling and clawing and punching.Well what I am really trying to say is… when and if I go into labor expect the punching to be in full force! Cute pregnant friend was calm and lovely. What an amazing mother she will be!

Matt was jumping up and down screaming “We are having a baby!” It was so cute how excited he got for our sweet friends. Then Matt and Mike (daddy to be) started joking about if I get pregnant I will be demanding foot rubs and back massages by every passerby that makes eye contact. Valid! So basically if I go into labor and suggest coming over to your house, object!

The next day we finally got to meet baby Libby. It was so amazing to finally meet her after seeing the first ultrasound so long ago. She was so little and perfect, (much unlike the giant mess Matt and I will have.) I can just imagine the 2 foot baby 12 pound baby that will explode out of my body thank to the oversized husband I have. All in all it was the most unique spiritual experience I have had and I can now be found googling cute nursery ideas for the non-baby I have. Creepy! 

How to make your husband do anything you want, or so I thought

So Tuna Tower Thursday Was a Huge Success. I found a recipe online shared by a sassy blogger. Obviously this lady is a bombshell, since she bragged about getting ½ of the ingredients for free and premade and well…. I didn’t!

The first stop was getting all the Asian inspired spices and sticky rice from the store. If you thought that sushi rice was just white rice like me, well it isn’t. It goes by the sophisticated name sticky rice and you add a plethora of ingredients to make it sticky and formable. My rice is always sticky, but probably because I overcook it! Well bombshell recipe blogger bragged about going the local Central Market where they sell sushi, and getting a bag for free. Following the steps to exactness, I walked up to the sushi counter at HEB and said, “Hi, can you bag up that sticky rice for me…for free!” I am a get down to business kind of girl. Apparently there is some smoozing that takes place before you can outright ask for free things, that wasn’t in the footnotes of the recipe. So when that didn’t work, I asked if I could purchase it. When that didn’t work, I tried to slip the cute Asian man in the chef’s hat a $10 bill with a wink. THAT DIDN’T WORK! Which was infuriating and led me to believe the recipe home girl must double as a play boy bunny, getting everything for free…shame on her! So, I referenced Google and found out how to make my own sticky rice, much better than HEB I am sure.

The second stop was the Quality Seafood Market off Airport Blvd. I have heard great things about the market and that most Austin restaurants get their seafood here (so, obviously it was good enough for my Thursday Tuna Tower).  I was greeted by a Seafood Santa and a dozen fish heads. Legit! Seafood Santa has a deep rich voice and a long white beard and was not offended by my lack of fish knowledge. He told me which tuna to use along with which crab meat would be nice to top it off and off I went.

My day was a huge success until I got to my third stop, home. As I am forming this spectacular Tuna Tower with homemade sticky rice, spicy mayo crab meat, avocado, topped with fresh raw Tuna, in walks my super sensitive husband. (I say that with the most sarcasm I can muster)! I mean hello….. Look at me Cassie Sushi chef! I hope it is extremely apparent that I do good things to get tons of praise and credit. I mean, what wife builds a tremendous sushi tower for dinner? NOT ME TYPICALLY! So when I received an objection about getting some last minute pita chips the tuna tower right about went through the window. This would have been amusing seeing it land atop some domain shoppers head!

I must admit it was a little dramatic. I mean we didn’t need anything to eat the tuna tower with. But because I worked hard on the masterpiece, I wanted it to be perfect. And perfect meant Pita Chips! That didn’t make much sense to my starving 6’7’’ hunk of a man. The patience that man must have with me is equivalent to a kindergarten teacher. Luckily, the store is around the corner and they had my favorite pita chips. We went home, turned on Big Brother, and had an amazing dinner! So tonight I am going to be slaving in the kitchen making my next creation. Cereal!

Three signs that point to your Husband watching too much Reality TV

I feel so bad for my poor husband. He must be the best husband on earth to sit through all the sappy reality TV I watch. Now that all the sports we watch have concluded it has become even worse. After my ritual of cleaning house, we sat down to watch some TV before bed.

Sign #1: Your husband is genuinely upset that you erased the last episode of the bachelorette because he didn’t get to see the ending.

·         Now I know that my husband can live without watching The Bachelorette each week. But, once you have men all roped up in a love quadrilateral, it can be kind of addicting. Plus you have to admit, watching John get sent home was a little funny.

Sign #2: You husband compares you and your family/friends  to members of the Real Housewives

·         I don’t know how many times I have heard. “Man she pulled a Vicki!”

Sign #3: In order to convince you he is telling the truth he uses the phrase “Bible!”

·         No lie, last night my husband predicted the ending of Misadvised when a date turned horribly wrong when a guy took the girl to the strip club. When the guy told the girl he had a surprise, Matt knew it would be the strip club.

o   Of course I thought Matt had seen the episode and the prediction was a hoax. In order to proclaim his innocence Matt yells “Bible, I didn’t know!” I guess we are an unofficial member of the Kardashians. Yikes!

Lesson Learned! I will make sure that we fit in some manly shows throughout the week. Some shows Matt will absolutely refuse to watch, but others can be a little catchy. Either way, Matt makes such a sacrifice to become interested in the shows I like to watch, the least I can do is watch Pawn Stars every once in a while.